Doorway rail assembly



Nov. 13, 1962 R. c. SCHROEDER ETAL 3,063,337

DOORWAY RAIL ASSEMBLY Filed Nov. 20, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TORS B54776. Qwzaazr? BY .Znwa D. I4 oa0 Nov- 13, 1962 R. c. SCHROEDER ETAL 3,063,387

DOORWAY RAIL ASSEMBLY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 20, 1957 N NM INVENTORS 16 6. 5' 1M? Sig BY 24:00 .2 W000 fur/g /%zsm4 [mas/Wflv;

United States Patent Mich.

Filed Nov. 20, 1957, Ser. No. 697,596 2 Claims. (Cl. 105369) This invention relates to a rail assembly useful for positionment across the doorway of a freight storage compartment, as for example the doorway of a railroad freight car.

In the bracing of freight within railroad freight cars it is customary to removably position a number of highstrength cross members across the car. These cross members cooperate with fiat bulkheads and deckboards to brace the freight against longitudinal shifting, particularly when the freight car comes to an abrupt stop.

The cross members are usually supported at their opposite ends in horizontal rails, which extend along the freight car side walls. It is desirable that the entire space within the freight car be utilizable for storing freight, and it therefore becomes necessary to extend cross members across the space between the two freight car doors. To support these cross members it is necessary to provide rails in each of the freight car doorways.

Objects of the present invention are to provide a doorway rail assembly wherein:

-(1) the rail assembly is removable from a point outside of the doorway, thereby avoiding the necessity of removing part of the freight before obtaining access to the rail assembly.

(2) the rail assembly cooperates with the doorway members in such manner that the rail assembly does not project into the storage compartment to any greater extent .than the adjacent rails, thereby maintaining the size of the storage compartment as large as possible, and

(3) the rail assembly is of fairly low cost construction, and is easily installed and removed by a single workman.

Other objections of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification where in like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a prespective view of a railroad freight car, with a rail assembly of the present invention being installed by a workman.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the FIG. 1 rail assembly in the installed position, with the doorway members being shown in section for illustration purposes.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the FIG. 2 structure, with certain parts being sectioned for illustration purposes.

FIG. 4 is an end view of the FIG. 2 rail assembly.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various Ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

In the drawings there is shown a railroad freight car having opposed side walls 11 and 12 on which are positioned horizontal channels or rails 13, spaced apart by wooden rub boards 14. A series of cross members 15 are positioned between opposed ones of rails 13 to brace freight 16 against longitudinal shifting in the arrow 17 direction. The structure of cross members 15 is fully shown in copending application, Serial No. 564,445, filed February 9, 1956, but it is sufficient for present purposes to note that each end of each cross member 15 is provided with a latch and two pins which are insertable into circular openings 18 in the vertical web of the adjacent channel 13. Each channel 13 is provided with three vertically spaced rows of openings 18 so as to permit adjustment of cross members 15 vertically as well as horizontally in the arrow 17 direction. With certain types of freight a bulkhead 19 may be provided between cross members 15 and the freight.

In order to fully utilize the space between doorways 20 and 21 for freight storage purposes it is necessary that cross members be extended between the doorways. To suitably support the opposite ends of these cross members there are provided a number of rail assemblies 22, one of which is shown in a partially installed position in FIG. 1.

Each of the freight car doorways 20 and 21 is defined by two vertical uprights 23, which are provided with a series of vertically space openings 24. Rail assembly 22 includes a channel member 25, which mounts four pins 26, 27, 28 and 29. These pins extend into openings 24 to rigidly mount channel member 25 in position between the two vertical uprights 23. Pins 26 and 27 preferably are fixedly mounted on a plate 30 rigidly secured to one end of channel 25. Pins 28 and 29 are fixedly secured to the inturned flange 31 of a slide plate 32. The left and right end portions of pins 28 and 29 slidably extend through circular openings in guide plates 33 and 34, which are fixedly secured to channel 25. Compression springs 35 and 36 are positioned between flange 31 and fixed plate 34 to urge the pin-slide plate assembly to its illustrated position wherein pins 28 and 29 project into selected ones of openings 24. The right end of plate 32 is turned inwardly at 40, and outwardly at '42 to form a manually graspable handle for easy movement of plate 32 against the action of springs 35 and 36. A stop block 43 is fixedly carried by the web of channel 25 to limit right-ward movement of plate 32.

Channel 25 serves as a mounting structure for a second channel 45 which extends along the entire length of channel 25. Channel 45 is provided with three vertically spaced rows of circular openings 46, 47 and 48, which accommodate the pins of cross members 15 in the same manner as openings 18 in channels 13. The spacing between adjacent openings in each row (46, 47 or 48) is preferably the same as the row spacing, whereby to permit rotary adjustment of the cross member 15 as more fully explained in the aforementioned copending application, Serial No. 564,445. In a usual installation the freight car doorways are each about eight feet wide, and the openings in channel '45 are spaced apart on one inch centers so as to provide a total of about two hundred eighty-eight openings in each channel. These openings allow vertical and lateral adjustment of the cross members 15 into snug engagement with varying size articles of freight.

Channel 45 does not unduly project into the freight car interior, and the entire assembly is easily removable from outside of the car. Additionally the mechanism employs a comparatively few number of parts, while providing a rigid structure which will adequately withstand the high stresses occurring during stop and g0 movement of the freight car.

We claim:

1. The combination comprising two horizontally spaced, vertically extending uprights defining a doorway for access to a freight storage space; a series of vertically spaced openings formed in said uprights; a first horizontal channel extending between said uprights with its web located in a vertical plane; two horizontally spaced vertical guide plates within the channel extending at right angles to the web portion; a pair of pins slidably extending through said guide plates; a vertically extending slide plate having its upper and lower portions slidably engaging the edges of the channel flanges; one end of said slide plate being turned into the confines of the channel and fixedly securied to the pins; spring means urging the pin-slide plate assembly to a position wherein the pins are inserted into openings in one of the uprights; a second pair of pins projecting from an end of the channel into the openings in the other upright; a second horizontal channel carried on the first channel with its web located in spaced parallelism with the first channel web; and perforations spaced along the length of the second channel web for reception of pin elements projecting from horizontal freight-supporting cross members positioned at right angles to the channels.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,702,169 Norman Feb. 12, 1929 2,091,869 McCurdy Aug. 31, 1937 2,593,174 ODell Apr. 15, 1952 2,747,520 Brown et a1. May 29, 1956 2,806,436 Johnston Sept. 17, 1957 2,808,789 Stough Oct. 8, 1957 2,857,856 Cronin Oct. 28, 1958 

